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Battlefield 2143 hint spotted in Battlefield 3's Wake Island

Got your salt shaker? Aim it dead-centre of your screen and blast away. A
sequel to futuristic team shooter Battlefield 2142 may be on the cards.

The revelation comes care of Battlefield 3's recently released Back to Karkand
DLC pack. On the remodelled Wake Island map, a crate. On its side, the
number "2143". Tenuous? You bet. Cause for frenzied excitement? Very
possibly.

Find a picture of this suggestive item of map furniture to the right, care of BF3blog.
If you're after a precedent, the site notes that DICE hid Battlefield
2142 teasers in the Battlefield 2: Euro Forces and Armoured Fury map
packs.

DICE released Battlefield 1943 - a stripped-down, single map,
online-only Battlefield 1942 - on Xbox Live Arcade in 2009. Will
Battlefield 2143 similarly remaster and chop down Battlefield 2142 for
Xbox 360?

Free Batman: Arkham City DLC announced

Downloadable Batman Incorporated costume out tomorrow

Rocksteady will release a free Batman: Arkham City tomorrow on Xbox Live
to thank fans for their loyalty. See, even Gotham celebrates Christmas.

The "Batman Incorporated" costume is similar to Batman's default
garb, but made from heavier-looking fabrics and with a more pronounced
Bat symbol on the chest. There have been crazier makeovers, but hey -
it's free.

And you won't need to play the whole game through to unlock it, or
indeed any other optional Batgear. Simply apply the following
combination of D-pad inputs to the main menu screen, after you choose
your save device:

Left, Left, Down, Down, Left, Left, Right, Up, Up, Down

An audio cue will play if the code has worked and you'll be given a
choice of alternative costumes. Cheats are brilliant, aren't they. More
of this sort of thing, developers.

Prototype 2

Another look at Radical's gruesome action sequel

There's a soft spot in our mutant hearts for the monster that is
Prototype. A pretty decent attempt at a sprawling open world action
game, we spent many an hour back in 2009 gliding around the skyscrapers
of Manhattan, before plunging our fists into the ground to create a 50ft
radius forest of deadly meat-spike trees.

While we didn't buy into the design of the world, which really felt like
a collection of textured cuboids, Alex Mercer's powers were bang-on. If
he wanted to play stealth, he could use his anti-social ability to
devour passers-by and assume their identity. Slightly less subtly, he
could sprout massive claws and scythe through crowds of civilians, tanks
and mutants. Protoype may not have been the stand-out open-world
adventure of the year, but - and we're wiping a small tear from the eye
as we say this - it gave us some fun memories.

So what of Prototype 2? Radical's latest version of the twisted New York
sandpit has new enemies, new abilities and an updated, quarantined
Manhatten in which to run amok. Many of Mercer's old tricks return, this
time infesting the body of our new hero, Sergeant James Heller. You can
still absorb key individuals to take on their appearance, for instance,
and stroll undetected under your enemy's unsmelling nose.

The fact you're not supposed to be as morally indifferent as Mercer
shows in some minor ways. For instance, picking somebody up in Prototype
1 was the start of a process that would always end in their death.
Heller has the option to simply put them down again. No more slaying of
innocent civilians unless you really want to, then.

Having said that, Heller does seem to take unseemly pleasure from his new powers. Take Bio-Bomb - the other
new option when you pick up a passer-by, and the opposite of "putting
them down again". You can inject them with an explosive viral payload,
and throw them across the map. Wherever they land, they'll explode into
thick ropes of organic matter. "Hell yeah," observes Heller. Hell, yeah?
Mate, those people probably had dreams.

The most substantial improvement is the ability to wield two of your
mutant powers at once. Each of the five powers can be assigned to your
left and right arm, giving you 15 combinations, each with their own
combos. Familiar powers return - the slow but powerful Hammerfist and
the telescopic Whipfist - but the Musclemass ability has gone, replaced
with a more flexible power called Tendrils. You can use tendrils to grab
and slam items around. If this was a more cerebral game, it might be
used for puzzles. As it stands, the main puzzle it solves is "how do you
smash a car into a tank?"

A new defensive tactic sees your character form giant rock shields,
capable of bouncing projectiles back to their source. Given the generous
way enemies throw rockets around, you're going to need it.

The levelling system has taken a leaf out of Skyrim's books - you'll
evolve your charming monster by using his powers, rather than upgrading
him with arbitrary tokens. You'll still get skill points for levelling
up, but they'll be added to more general attributes, like "locomotion"
and "health". If you want to build a better Whipfist, you're going to
have to use it.

Sadly, many of Prototype's downsides remain. The city's tower blocks
pale beside the chimneys and spires of Arkham City. The AI isn't the
sharpest knife in the drawer, with civilians and foes sometimes failing
to bat an eyelid when Heller plummeted into their midst - we're assured
that the Blacklight Soldiers will be improved by final release, but the
same can't be said of civilians - they're cattle, plain and simple.

These deflating moments aside, Prototype 2 is shaping up nicely -
polishing up the original's core mechanics and adding an inch or two
more depth. We'll be back with more details when we go hands-on in
January.